North And South Korea Contemplate Peace Talks

A woman takes pictures in front of a signboard showing the distance to the North Korea’s capital Pyongyang and to South Korea’s capital Seoul from Imjingang Station in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, Jan 4, 2018. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reopened a key cross-border communication channel with South Korea for the first time in nearly two years Wednesday as the rivals explored the possibility of sitting down and talking after months of acrimony and fears of war.
A woman takes pictures in front of a signboard showing the distance to the North Korea's capital Pyongyang and to South Korea's capital Seoul from Imjingang Station in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, Jan 4, 2018. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reopened a key cross-border communication channel with South Korea for the first time in nearly two years Wednesday as the rivals explored the possibility of sitting down and talking after months of acrimony and fears of war. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
A woman takes pictures in front of a signboard showing the distance to the North Korea’s capital Pyongyang and to South Korea’s capital Seoul from Imjingang Station in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, Jan 4, 2018. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reopened a key cross-border communication channel with South Korea for the first time in nearly two years Wednesday as the rivals explored the possibility of sitting down and talking after months of acrimony and fears of war.
A woman takes pictures in front of a signboard showing the distance to the North Korea's capital Pyongyang and to South Korea's capital Seoul from Imjingang Station in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, Jan 4, 2018. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reopened a key cross-border communication channel with South Korea for the first time in nearly two years Wednesday as the rivals explored the possibility of sitting down and talking after months of acrimony and fears of war. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

North And South Korea Contemplate Peace Talks

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In a New Year’s Day speech, North Korea’s Leader, Kim Jong Un, opened the door for détente with South Korea. 

Kim made overtures for high-level talks between the countries. He said he would consider South Korea’s standing offer for some form of joint participation at the upcoming Winter Olympics, beginning next month in PyeongChang, South Korea.

“I appreciate and welcome the North’s positive response to our proposal that the PyeongChang Olympics should be used as a turning point in improving South-North relations and promoting peace,” said South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in.

We’ll discuss the prospects for thawing tensions between North and South Korea with Bruce Cumings, professor of history at the University of Chicago. He’s author of numerous books on the Korean peninsula including, Parallax Visions: Making Sense of American-East Asian Relations at the End of the Century, The Korean War: A History and North Korea: Another Country.